The Lisbon Sauerkraut Days festival will be Bringin’ Back the Kraut, with old favorites and new events highlighting the festival Aug. 5-7.
Lisbon Sauerkraut Days festival chair Jerry Dietsch said that the passion of the committee has helped them rise to a number of challenges for this year’s festival.
“The committee members have been working to come up with a solution to a number of problems, including how we were going to handle losing rides for this year’s festival,” Dietsch said. “This committee has worked to make sure there is something for all ages to be able to enjoy, and things going on at all times during the festival at the same time as trying to avoid conflicts with some of our most popular events.”
Dietsch said that organizing for the festival is always done with the community in mind, and this is a community event, planned by a wide swath of community members who love Lisbon.
“That’s what makes us different from other festivals, is that we have a very active board of volunteers who are passionate about this festival,” Dietsch said. “We have members that are in Lisbon, and then those that border are from other communities but have a passion about this festival being held in Lisbon.”
Changes this yearDietsch noted that while the festival will not have the carnival rides this year, one of the big changes people are going to notice this year – the variety of food and food vendors available.
“When the carnival rides have been here in the past, there have been a number of restrictions on the foods we were able to provide,” Dietsch said. “With this festival, we’re going to have our booths run by our regular vendors, including our area churches, but we’re also going to have food items like funnel cakes, and vendors offering Mexican food, Chinese food, shaved ice and other significant changes.”
Dietsch said that the variety of foods available on top of the traditional brats and sauerkraut should allow people to find something they want to eat.
One of the changes that Dietsch was also noting was a scheduling change. The Iowa Pedal Tractor Pull event, a long time favorite event of the festival, will be held Friday evening directly after the crowning of the Sauerkraut King and Queen.
“It’s still an event that’s open to kids of all ages and offered for free, but it’s being held Friday evening instead of directly after the parade on Saturday as has been the case in the past,” Dietsch said.
That moving from the time after the parade will be happening because of the newly formed Kids Fun Zone events to be held in downtown Lisbon.
“We’ll have bouncy houses, rock climbing walls, hayrack and tractor rides and a petting zoo downtown Lisbon this year,” Dietsch said.
The event is being sponsored by Bass Farms of Mount Vernon. Dietsch noted that Bass Farms had reached out to the Sauerkraut Days committee this year to be part of the event, and some of the inflatables and the hayrack rides are coming from Bass Farms to begin with. The kids fun zone will come with a $5 admission wristband which will let youth play on the inflatables and tractor rides as much as possible in the three hour time frame.
There will also be events, like a dunk tank down at downtown Lisbon Saturday during the festival, run by members of the Booster Club of Lisbon.
On Friday evening, the Sauerkraut Days festival will also have the Lisbon Library’s Annual Trivia Contest being run from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. The trivia contest will be held next to the Lisbon Public Library, and no pre-registration is required. Players can opt to pay $2 per round or choose to pay for all the rounds of the trivia contest. They can play as part of a team or as an individual. The proceeds benefit the Friends of the Lisbon Library.
Thursday evening will also have a teen dance in downtown Lisbon. The teen dance is being sponsored by the Lisbon Booster Club and the Lisbon cheerleading squad. A deejay will provide music for the street dance and the event is open to youth in sixth through eighth grade.
Popular returning eventsThe Sauerkraut 5K will be run again this year, with pre-registration beginning at 7:15 a.m., and the run/walk beginning at 8 a.m.
“That’s one of the events I’m always surprised by the number of people who show up and participate in the event,” Dietsch said. “It’s one of the events that has passionate volunteers who are organizing the event every year.”
Following the parade on Saturday, there will also be the return of the Cabbage Head Car Show in downtown Lisbon.
“We should have six full blocks of cars for the car show again this year, and the derecho only took out two of the larger shade trees along that car show route,” Dietsch said.
The Sauerkraut Days committee is also seeing a large group of participants for the annual Sauerkraut Days slow-pitch softball tournament organized and run by Travis Bagby and Drayton Kamberling.
Road closures Main Street closure to set up stages for the festival will begin Friday morning, as opposed to the festivals in the past, where street closures needed to begin Thursday morning to make room for the carnival rides.
“There’s still an opportunity if people need to get to the post office or bank, there’s a chance to do some of that,” Dietsch said.
The parade will follow a route similar to the route as it has followed years in the past, with line-up at Fifth Avenue East. The Parade will proceed down Washington Street to the intersection of Market Street, west on Market Street to Walnut Street then west on Main Street to Penn Street before heading south on Penn Street and then east along South Street, proceeding to the Lisbon School parking lot, where the event will then conclude. Line-up begins at 9:30 a.m. and the parade begins at 10:30 a.m. No water balloons or water may be thrown from the floats.
Lisbon Bringin’ Back the Kraut this weekend
August 5, 2021
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.